An Annapolis Valley high school principal facing sex charges is behind bars for allegedly breaching his release conditions by having contact with a Crown witness.

Douglas Keyes, 51, of Gypsum Mines, Hants County, was with the male witness at a hotel in the Halifax area when he was arrested Thursday, sources told The Chronicle Herald.

Keyes was kept in custody and transported to Halifax provincial court Friday morning. He chose to remain in a holding cell while a lawyer appeared before a judge on his behalf in the afternoon.

Duty defence lawyer Cameron MacKeen told the court that Keyes was consenting to be remanded until next Thursday, when he’ll appear in Kentville provincial court for a bail hearing.

Crown attorney Tim O’Leary said his colleague in the Valley will be applying to revoke Keyes’ earlier release on the sex charges.

Keyes, principal of Avon View High School in Windsor, was placed on paid administrative leave last month after he was charged with numerous sex offences involving a boy.

The educator faces 11 charges, including sexual assault, sexual touching, exploitation, breach of trust, using a computer with the intent to commit a criminal offence and producing a false document.

Most of the offences are alleged to have been committed in Hants, Lunenburg and Halifax counties between 1998 and 2002. The two computer-related offences allegedly occurred in 2009.

The charges involve a single complainant, a former Windsor student who’s now in his mid-20s. His name is banned from publication.

RCMP launched an investigation after the young man filed a complaint in November.

Keyes was arrested in December and released by police after signing an undertaking to surrender his passport, remain in Nova Scotia and have no contact with children under the age of 16, the complainant and eight other Crown witnesses.

Halifax lawyer Joel Pink is representing Keyes on the sex charges. Keyes was not present on Jan. 3 for his arraignment in Windsor provincial court.

The case will be back in Windsor court March 27. Pink told reporters last week that his client plans to plead not guilty to all 11 charges.

A group of students and former students planned to rally Jan. 3 in support of Keyes, but the event did not materialize.

An organizer said the rally didn’t go ahead because Keyes’ father died recently and supporters thought it would be best to wait until his March court appearance.

The complainant has been the victim of intimidation tactics and bullying by some overzealous former students since the charges were laid, one of his relatives told the Herald last week.